One More Thing
Sometimes I pull a thought and an entire sweater unravels. In the last three days I’ve written about the torture of waiting for an answer, the pain of getting something other than what you want, and my technique for dealing with it. I thought I was done, but lo and behold, there’s more. This is that, the more, and it came to me while reading a book on geology, another book in a long line of books I’ve read recently on the subject.
It's the essence of the subject that brought this thought to mind. Geology is about the world. Where it’s been and where it’s going. A scientist looks at rocks and can see ancient rivers, streams, oceans, mountains, ice, and volcanoes. And I thought, I am just like the world, an amalgamation of past hurts and pleasures, births and deaths, loves won and lost. And every day I live puts me one day further from any day I’ve ever lived, and the experiences of that new day coat the experiences of those past days, burying them in memories. Time has rounded the corners, dulled the pain, leavened the pleasures, but I trudge on.
I think I’ve always known this, too. No single day is the whole picture of my life. My failures and defeats, while multitudinous, are offset by an equally large cache of victories and pleasures. And my decision to choose happiness is the wind and rain that is sculpting them into the mountains and valleys, rivers and plains of my soul. And that choice is key. Time is not the healer of all wounds, it’s what you choose to do with the time that counts.